


Second Chances?

by TheEmpressAR



Category: Cobra Kai (Web Series), Karate Kid (Movies)
Genre: Divorce, Drinking, Dysfunctional Family, Dysfunctional Relationships, Family Drama, Gen, Past Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Single Parents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-14
Updated: 2019-09-14
Packaged: 2020-10-18 05:11:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20633630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheEmpressAR/pseuds/TheEmpressAR
Summary: This one-shot is part of The OC Challenge for The Quiver.  Joelie has some troubling dreams over her latest battle with her daughter Sierra.





	Second Chances?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rynnsama](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rynnsama/gifts).

> I really hope I got the feels right for this piece. I took the time to read Rynnsama's synopsis and scenarios for this family...and I was moved by the background and what I had read about their lives. I hope I only glimpsed properly what I feel is the drama for this struggling family dynamic. I know they've had a tough existence and a lot of the elements hit close to home with me. 
> 
> Disclaimer: If this doesn't flow with the go...please just consider this an off-shot AU...not related *crosses fingers and hope it's somewhat in the ballpark*
> 
> Thank you, Rynnsama for allowing me to play a little in your world <3

Joelie rolled over in her sleep. Her bed was cold and empty. The lights were out except for the dim bedside lamp that she still fell asleep to almost nightly. Her dreams were troubled. Her brow furrowed as she tried to put the memories of the past behind her but they refused to leave. Not tonight. 

There was a half-empty bottle of beer next to an empty bottle of beer and combined with the one lying on the floor, she considered herself a very cheap date that night...but with no one to take her home, she was just settling on the fact of passing out alone. 

Flashes of her past life. Flooded her brain. Caused her to whimper out in her sleep. She rolled again, tossing an arm off the side of the bed...burying her face deeper into the pillow. 

_ “When are you going to step up and be a father to these children, Dutch?” She said through tears after another night of him coming home drunk...staggering in the door. _

_ “I don’t know what you’re talking about...I’m home ain’t I?” _

_ “It’s two in the morning! You’re drunk...what kind of example are you setting for your children?” Joelie had waited up for him...time and time again. She noticed that it got later and later every time he decided to fall into the door of their small home. _

_ “I work...I provide for them...what more do you want?!” Dutch yelled back at her. When he got drunk he got mean. Joelie had been walking on eggshells around him for years. She knew his moods. She knew how he could get. He threatened but he never lay a hand on her. Or her children. Yet. _

_ The fights persisted. She just wanted her husband to stay home. She just wanted him to do fatherly things with his family. He wanted him to be an example for their son. Their son who had begun to resent him more and more by the way he treated his mother. He could barely look at his ‘old man’ on the rare occasions he didn’t stay all hours at the bar after work. _

_ Joelie talked to Dutch about his relationship with Hayden. How she thought he was losing the bright boy with impeccable grades at school, who’d often show his mother how much he was excelling in his education and how he’d often promise her he’d take her away from all this struggle and bad life. Joelie was never more proud of him. He was only ten years old and had the world on his shoulders. She just wished Dutch would see him for the man he was turning out to be. _

A tear eased her way out of her eye as she sniffled into her pillowcase. Her son was grown now. Grown and with someone. They had a child and she realized they had the life that she always wanted for her own. She had one child left...still at home...still a chance. Joelie frowned and twisted the bed sheet in her hand. The two of them were like oil and water. The older Sierra got the more she realized just how much like her father she truly was. 

_ “You’re drunk.” _

_ “No shit.” _

_ “You were supposed to be at the parent-teacher conference at school tonight. It’s mandatory, Dutch. They wanted us there to discuss Hayden’s progress. They wanted to put him in advance classes.” _

_ (flatly) “Hey that’s great...why’d I need to be there again? Turn a cartwheel or some shit? The kid hates me. I think I would have just rained on his parade if I showed up.” _

_ “He _ hates _ you because you didn’t show up...you _ never _ show up...if he did in fact _ hate _ you...as you put it.” _

_ “Just get off my ass alright...I’m beat...I’m gonna hit the sack.” _

_ “We need to talk about this! I want you to be there. I want to you to be present for your son, Dutch. I want you to know your little girl.” _ Sierra reaches out to her dad. She’s on her mom’s hip and wants her daddy to pick her up and hold her. She remembers the horsey rides he gave her around the house and how they used to make a trampoline out of her Mommy and Daddy’s bed. She doesn’t understand why Mommy and Daddy fight so much. She remembers when they were happier and she doesn’t like this at all _ . _

_ “Daddy?” _

_ Dutch musters up a genuine smile for her and pats her on the head. _

_ “Put her to bed, Joe...I’m not gonna fight you in front of the kid.” _

_ “I’m not trying to fight you, Dutch...I just wanna know why...you couldn’t be there...this one night. It was important. You promised.” _

_ Hayden was listening to everything from his bedroom, that he shared with Sierra. He was staring at the ceiling...getting angrier. “I didn’t want you there anyway…” He punched his mattress. _

Joelie sat up in bed. She went to the bathroom. Splashed some cold water on her face and looked at herself in the mirror. The memories wouldn’t stop flooding back in. 

The fighting had escalated. The fact that she wouldn’t give up the subject. Not that night. The fact that she told him that she wanted a divorce if he didn’t change his ways...started acting more like the father he needed to be. To put aside the ‘fun, carefree’ life and live the life of a responsible family man with kids. The way he looked at her at the mention of the word _ ‘divorce’ _ . _ “Over my dead body.” _ he raised his hand to her. She didn’t see much after that. The next thing she remembered was running to her car. Her four year old in her arms and her ten year old by her side screaming back at the door. Yelling with all of his might. Screaming at the man he would never call his father...to not touch him or his mother ever again. The rain pelting them all as the car drove into the dark night. 

Joelie studied her face in the mirror. It had been hard since then. There never was an easy time that she could remember. She had become a hard-working, struggling, single mother with two kids. She took any and every odd job that was handed to her and without much afforded to her by any financial help...she did the best she could to provide for her children. They were first and foremost in her life. 

She had sacrificed everything she had so her children would have things better than she did. She gave up a lot so her kids could go to school and not be the “outcast poor kids” It had been that way for a while. Signing up for the free school lunch programs. Accepting help from charitable organizations when they needed clothes. Medicaid and food stamps were always a reality in their world. 

Hayden always did his best to protect his mother during those years. When he was old enough he found a part-time job and helped out with the bills. He had grown beyond his years. Joelie looked at the lines on her face in the mirror. No child should have been put through what he had been. 

He’d been picked on at school. He knew he was different in more than one way...other than not having a mother and a father at home together. But it toughened him up and made him even more resentful to the bastard that put them in this position. No child support. No birthday cards. No visitation…(his mom had practically begged him to still be a part of their lives and he did shit all in return) It was his anger that had drove him on. To be number one in all of his classes despite his set-backs and lot in life. 

Sierra was a challenge. She loved her daddy. She never could fully understand why he had to go away. Why she couldn’t see him anymore...why did Mommy take her away from him? She resented her mother. She wanted to get even. Wanted to fight her every step of the way...Just yell at her. “You took him away from me!” Joelie turned the light out in the bathroom and went down the hall to her daughter’s room. She was still in high school...if you could call it that. The amount of times she was out of high school than in it...was a constant battle between the two of them. 

“_You’re going to be labeled a truant, Sierra!!” _Was their latest argument. She had come in late that night smelling of booze and dressed in a cheap leather skirt and halter top. Joelie had been sitting up waiting for her to come in...and it had brought back painful memories. Like father like daughter. 

_ “Yeah...what do you care?” _

_ “I care because you’re going to get me into trouble!!” _

_ “You? What do you have to do with anything? It’s me they’d bust.” _

_ “You don’t get it. If you don’t show up to school...I have to explain why...and if I don’t have an excuse...a valid reason why my daughter is not in class...and has not been going to class and staying…I get fined. I get a hellova lot of fined.” _She waved a letter from the court in front of her daughter’s face. 

_ “So what...it’s just money. Daddy can take care of it.” _

_ “Your father...has just been starting to come around to see and talk to you…what do you think the first thing he’s going to think when you tell him that you’re going to juvie because you’re cutting class...skipping school.” _

_ “He’s gonna say it’s your fault.” _

_ “You’re grounded.” _ Joelie had had enough.

_ “You can’t ground, me...I don’t care...I’m gonna go move in with dad anyway...he said I could.” _

Joelie looked down at the sleeping obstinate, willful young lady as she slept in her bed. She was still dressed in her clothes and black mascara was streaked on her cheeks from crying. They had argued more that night with Sierra finally going to her room and slamming the door. That’s when Joelie decided to forget her troubles and drink herself into a fitful slumber. 

She would call Dutch in the morning. He had been trying to be on friendly terms with them all lately. After his accident, he realized that life was too precious to let it all end for him without having the opportunity to make amends and try. Funny, how it takes a near death situation to see what a life and death situation you left your family in all of these years. It was just the fact that he wanted to try again. That he had made the effort. That it was a beginning for him and for them, that gave Joelie...hope. She desperately needed him to give some guidance to their troubled daughter. To patch things up with their son. To make things right with her. She was willing to open up enough to give him that chance. She just hoped it wasn’t too late. 


End file.
